Good afternoon and welcome to Valley Roundup, a review of the week’s top news stories in Aspen and beyond.

Joining us today are Carolyn Sakariason, from the Aspen Daily News , Michael Miracle of Aspen Sojourner magazine and Andy Stone from the Aspen Times.

This week saw the first court proceedings in the Nancy Pfister murder case. Much of the time was spent arguing over evidence and public statements from law enforcement. The concern is that media reports and rumors could make it impossible to find an impartial jury. A trial in the case is months if not years away.

Also this week, Hotel Aspen gets approved to grow itself.

And, in Snowmass the owners of base village go on the defensive over losing another proposed development.

We’ll discuss those stories and have The Download with Rob St. Mary. It’s coming up on today’s Valley Roundup.

Carolyn Sackariason and Andy Stone join us to talk about the big news this week including the Silver Queen Gondola on Aspen Mountain. Right at peak ski season the lift blew a wheel bearing - a big one.

The grounded ski lift appears to have had little effect on tourism in town. It is shaping up to be one of the best Holiday season’s in recent years.

Also today we look at Colorado’s mark on history. You can now walk into a store, buy some ganja, fire up the bong and toke it up…and it’s all legal. This is such a big story that Colorado’s biggest news paper hired a marijuana editor to handle the news flow.

Welcome to Valley Roundup, this week a review of the top stories of 2013. Curtis Wackerle of the Aspen Daily News and Brent Gardner Smith of Aspen Journalism join us to look back on a busy year.

In Aspen it was regime change as a new mayor and city council was elected and changed the tone of debate. For Basalt a major issue was the forced relocation of residents living downtown in the Pan and Fork trailer park.

2013 was also marked by conflict over noise in Aspen’s restaurant row, the conclusion of a big cocaine bust and sticker shock from Obamacare.

Welcome to Valley Roundup, a review of the week’s top news stories in the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond. I’m Elise Thatcher.

Carolyn Sackariason and Andy Stone join us this week.

Basalt officials change course when it comes to helping residents kicked of a trailer park. It’s the latest in a years long saga to move residents out of a flood plain… and build more lucrative development.

“If there’s a piece of land that they could build on, why didn't they have that conversation several months ago?”

The local bus authority says they’re not going to put in seat belts to certain buses… several people were ejected during a bus crash this fall… but it’s really expensive putting belts in existing buses.

“The feds shouldn’t wait until 2016 for every bus to have seat belts. Just make it mandatory January 1st, and then every bus agency in the country has to figure it out.”

Also this week, Aspen announced what the city calls big cuts in green house gasses… and law enforcement plans to crack down on idling cars…

Later this hour we’ll talk with a reporter covering a wrongful death lawsuit in Vail… that’s after a teenager died in an in-bounds avalanche…

“I cannot imagine the pain and the heartache of sending a child skiing in the morning and getting that phone call from the authorities in the afternoon.”

And on the Download this week, our digital guru talks with perhaps the most dedicated public radio listener ever.